A gas turbine’s high pressure rotor takes on some of the most extreme temperatures in industry. And must do it for 100,000 operating hours. Right now, we are booked out of gas turbines for the rest of the decade. The shortage got me thinking about fan blades.
Today, modern gas turbine inlet temperatures can reach an infernal 1,600 degrees Celsius. That’s hotter than most lavas. What can handle such extreme conditions? Some of the most special metals you will ever see in your life. Metals tortured to survive things that regular metals never can. And it is still not enough. In today’s video, my friends, we study the blade. And the materials that make them.
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